If You Must Be An Empire, Don’t Be An Incompetent Empire
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Jerry Pournelle, on foreign policy.
I was opposed to extending our Afghan adventure beyond the punishment of the Taliban for harboring out enemies; left to me we’d have been out as soon as Kabul fell to the anti-Taliban forces, with perhaps a billion dollars in bribe money squirreled away to be spent at the …
Re: Fort Hood's Shootings
I believe this post finishes our site’s libertarian conversion. We now occupy the same portion of the libertarian spectrum that LewRockwell.com occupies.
I don’t like America’s wars of aggression. The problem, as I see it, is that it can be hard to tell the difference between a war of aggression and a good preemptive defense. For …
Notes from The Future in Iraq, Part 1
Michael J. Totten: The Future in Iraq, Part 1.
On the Jaysh al Mahdi, Moqtada al Sadr’s radical Mahdi Army militia:
Hajji Jasim, General Nasser’s guest from the office of the Mahdi Army’s “political wing,” sat next to Major Kareem on the couch. “Understand something,” he said to Captain Heil. “In the media, JAM only …
War is over. We won.
Michael Yon thinks that [The Surge worked -- and we won].
The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an …
Support the Troops: Bring Them Home
Driving to church on Saturday, for my daughter’s dedication service, I passed a car with an anti-war bumper sticker. Of course. This is Madison, WI after all. It said: ”Support the Troops. Bring Them Home”. It’s a nice sentiment. But is it actually shared by the troops themselves?
Occasionally, I have my doubts. This interview from …
Andy Olmsted
The hardest thing I ever had to read was the ”goodbye” that I wrote for my grandfather’s funeral. This was the second hardest.
Obsidian Wings: Andy Olmsted:
Andrew Olmsted, who also posted here as G’Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave me a post to publish in the event of his death; the last …
Syria Wants in On Iraq
From the New York Times: Syria Is Said to Be Strengthening Ties to Opponents of Iraq’s Government
Syria is encouraging Sunni Arab insurgent groups and former Iraqi Baathists with ties to the leaders of Saddam Hussein’s government to organize [in Damascus], diplomats and Syrian political analysts say. By building strong ties to those groups, …
Symptoms of Victory
I think we’re making progress in the War on Terror — both in Iraq and in the rest of the world. Here is my evidence for tonight.
American Thinker: A Quiet Triumph May be Brewing
There are signs that the global Islamic jihad movement is splitting apart, in what would be a tremendous achievement for …
We've Made Progress in Iraq
The Progress magazine has a good summary of the situation in Iraq. The article is a little long, but it is well worth reading. Since it’s too long — and too complex — for me to summarize, I’ll just quote from their concluding paragraphs.
Understanding this expensive victory is a matter of understanding the …
Waiting for Political Progress in Iraq
I spend a lot of time discussing Iraq with a friend. We both agree that the U.S. needs to stabilize Iraq, but we have occasional disagreements about what that will take and what the best plan is. We’re both frustrated with the lock of political progress in Iraq. It’s great that casualties are down, that …